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Fast Agile Beautiful - part 6 of 1 2 3 4 5 6

by Mike McNamee Published 01/02/2010

Exposure

We found the camera to be over-exposing about a 1/2 stop. The AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8 GII ED Introduced in July 2009 the newly designed 70-200mm VR Nikkor is sure to be a winner, it really is a superb optic. It has a constant aperture and close-focuses to 1.4m throughout its zoom range. It has seven ED Glass elements in a lineup of 21 elements in 16 groups. The vibration reduction has two modes: 'normal' for everyday use shooting at up to 4-stops advantage and an 'active' setting for use from motorbikes, cars, helicopters (or in our case a ferris wheel!). It is equipped with a locking lens hood (a real bonus!) and a rotating collar.

On all normal subjects it focussed with complete ease. Tracking the running dogs was more of an issue and the focus failed to 'lock on' in many instances. We did note that once it did 'focus lock' it tended to track quite well. The clarity of the stabilised image was outstanding with the address and telephone numbers on the dog-tags being easily readable on a shot made at 1/2500 f4 at ISO400 and at the 200mm focal length. In the image shown the tag is clear (from 6.6m distance) as was the next shot taken at 2.5m distance. This just preceded a collision between dog and photographer. Under less onerous conditions with the dogs running across the lens' focus was easily and accurately achieved.

Hand holding at 170mm and 1/160 is something this photographer would not normally entertain - some can, but you should know your limits. The VR worked really well and overall the D700 70-200mm combination was a joy to use. We shot at 1/250 and 200mm on the ferris wheel. The shots were poor through the Perspex window, but were certainly not shaky.

DX Performance

There is a menu option to set the camera to auto-detect into a crop to suit the DX lenses when such a lens is attached to the camera. This is in keeping with Nikon's long-standing backcompatibility tradition and means that your older DX lenses are not wasted even if you have to throw a few pixels away. We used a 12-24mm DX lens in this mode. Shooting into the sun we experienced less chromatic fringing with the D700 that we experience with the D200 chip.

The Beauty Shoot

We tested the D700 using the latest Nikon Camera Control Pro. The software is neat at what it does but in combination with Live View the battery life was drastically reduced, indeed the battery was embarrassingly flattened before an audiencedemonstration could be made. The warning is clear, if you want to use Live View make sure you test and understand how long you are going to get out of a battery charge.

Undaunted, Patrick was shooting with Damian McGillicuddy the next day and we passed the 70-200 to Damian to shoot with. His shot is reproduced. It was made at 1/125 f4.5 and ISO 200 at 200mm focal length. The image has been given the Big Dog treatment but we are assured that the original quality was also sparkling! A hand-held shot at 200mm and the full aperure of f2.8. The detail is very impressive indeed as shown by the truesize pull-out.

Overall

We loved both cameras, they were responsive, easy to use and, in combination with lenses such as the 70-200 and the 14-24mm, you can expect breathtaking performance and sharpness. The abilities at higher ISO ratings are well reported and, in our experience, well justified; these two cameras really do open up opportunities that were previosly not possible.

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